Research Review: Effect of the critical care outreach team on patient survival to discharge from hospital and readmission to critical care: non-randomised population based study

Abstract

While many descriptive studies about the UK model for critical care outreach have been published recently1, this publication documents a rigorous implementation and evaluation plan for determining the effect of a critical care outreach team in one hospital. The authors are highly regarded clinical experts with postgraduate preparation; the first author, who has doctoral qualifications, has previously published on the UK outreach services2,3. In their literature review, the authors provide a brief historical overview of outreach service in the UK and identify its similarities and differences to the Australian medical emergency teams•· 5 that are emerging. They note that rigorous evaluation data has not yet substantiated the effect of outreach teams, thus highlighting the significance of their research.